


Don't Ask Why It Works, It Just Does

by Memories_of_the_Shadows



Category: Naruto
Genre: Chakra, Gen, Hand Signs, Headcanon, Practice makes perfect, Teaching, gratuitous use of romajii
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-15 09:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13610811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows
Summary: Hand seals are weird and confusing, Naruto has questions.





	Don't Ask Why It Works, It Just Does

**Author's Note:**

  * For [my fiance](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=my+fiance).



> For my beloved fiancé, for your birthday. I hope this answers your questions. It is nearly entirely gen, just for you, babe.

“The most common mistake in hand seals we see is someone mixing up tora with hitsuji, which can either cause the jutsu to fail miserably or explo--Naruto are you even listening!” screams Iruka, aiming an eraser at the boy. It hits, because Naruto was most certainly _not_ listening and was instead busy doodling fighting stick figures on the desk.

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto whines, rubbing the bump on his head from the shot. His blond hair looks white from all the chalk and he grumbles as he shakes it out. Shikamaru sneezes in his sleep from the cloud of dust that raises. “I don’t get why we need to know all this -ttebayo! Can’t you just teach us a super awesome jutsu without hand seals?”

“Ugh, _no_ , Na-ru-to! Iruka-sensei was just saying why that’s not a good idea.” Sakura brushes her long, pink hair over her shoulder imperiously and Naruto nearly sighs sillily. He stops, just in time, because that’s a _girly_ thing to do. If he did that, what’s next? Chasing after the brooding bastard?

“Yes, well,” Iruka coughs, blushing. “Naruto-kun, the jutsu without hand seals are much too high a level for you. For _any_ of you.” Sasuke, who had briefly perked up in attention, snorts and goes back to staring out the window. “You need hand signs to focus your chakra, especially for unfamiliar jutsu.”

“But, _why_ , sensei?” Naruto asks, completely certain that he was right and Iruka was wrong. Iruka looks around the room, noticing that everyone _but_ Naruto looks bored and fidgety, and sighs. Clearly he won’t be able to expound on this now without risking the rest of the class’ grades, even if it _is_ the first time that Naruto has shown interest in something he’s teaching.

“That’s just the way it is.” Naruto looks mutinous, but Iruka is willing to take whatever prank the boy will come up with so long as it gets them back on track.

////////////////

“Now, Naruto, I’m only going to show you these hand seals once. Pay attention,” Kakashi orders. It’s a relatively low level jutsu, hard to mess up, but Naruto watches hungrily anyway. “It’s tora, ushi, inu, u, mi,” he says, going slowly enough for Naruto to follow along--although he notes that the forms are sloppy and slow, much worse than Sakura or Sasuke--and without chakra.

“Why those hand seals -ttebayo?” Naruto asks, practicing again without Kakashi following along, noticeably better after the first couple times. “Innit supposed to be a fuuton jutsu?”

Kakashi shrugs. “Yes. Fuuton: Daitoppa. I just copied the jutsu.” Asking questions of an enemy shinobi tends to lead to certain death. Kakashi doesn’t worry about the hand seals a whole lot, unless it’s to wonder how he will manage to _do_ all of them in time. Forty-four hand seals for the suiton: suiryuudan no jutsu, indeed. It’s a wonder anyone aside from the Nidaime ever used it. “If you want to use less, you have to practice it.”

That’s a habit for Naruto, he’s noticed. Even his kage bunshin no jutsu has been missing the customary hitsujii-mi-tora that normally precedes the bunshin seal, from the very beginning if Iruka’s report is to be believed. “I know _that_ , Kakashi-sensei, I’ll master this in no time!”

“Maa, I’m sure you will,” he says, patting Naruto on the head. The boy scrunches his nose up and sticks his tongue out.

“But, don’t fuuton jutsu normally have tori?” Kakashi just shrugs and buries his nose in his book, missing Naruto’s groan of frustration.

//////////////////

“You build up chakra in your body by spinning it in a tight spiral. Some people spin left, you spin right. Now try it.” Jiraiya grins as Naruto focuses on the water balloon. It bursts on his fifth try after that revelation. “See? No complicated hand seals.”

Naruto frowns though, and squints up at him. “Why don’t it have hand seals? Iruka-sensei said we needed them to focus.” Jiraiya hands him another balloon instead of answering, and Naruto pops that one too with a bit of thought. Inside, Jiraiya grimaces and hopes the next step will take longer, he’s not sure his ego can take it if the brat really does manage to master the rasengan in a month.

“This is a _special_ jutsu. Most, yeah, but the Yondaime created this one. I taught him you know,” Jiraiya laughs, bragging, and pretends he doesn’t hear Naruto mutter ‘stupid Ero-sennin’ under his breath. “There are other ways of focusing your chakra!”

“Like what?”

“Well, do you need hand seals to do tree climbing or water walking?” Naruto frowns again, then rubs the back of his head, a little sheepish.

“Sometimes, yeah.” This time it’s Jiraiya who frowns.

“You don’t practice enough. It must become second nature to you! Only then will you be a great ninja!”

“Hey! I’m already a great ninja! You old pervert!” Naruto sticks his tongue out at Jiraiya and spends the rest of the day practicing popping the balloons, climbing trees, and walking over any body of water they pass. Kage Bunshin bounce between all three exercises, as hyperactive as the boy who creates them. Only when they stop for the night does Naruto say, “Hey, Ero-sennin, if hand seals are like chakra control exercises, can’t you just push your chakra around instead of using seals?”

Jiraiya rolls his eyes at the novice question. “Of course not! Hand seals are nothing like chakra control.”

“Then why--?”

“Let me show you the next stage for the Rasengan!” Jiraiya pulls the ball from his bag with a sadistic grin, laughing when Naruto moans.

/////////////////////

“You need to prepare yourself better, Naruto.” Yamato looms over the teenager who is panting and wet with sweat, but grinning widely until he catches a look at Yamato’s face.

“Gah! Don’t _do_ that, Yamato-taichou!” Naruto crab-walks away as fast as he can while Yamato snickers internally. It’s the best, having someone who will properly freak out to practice his face on. “Prepare _what_ better?” he asks suspiciously a moment later.

“Your hand seals are still sloppy. You won’t always get a chance to practice a jutsu before you use it, you know.” He can remember every single time Kakashi has done that to him, approximately twenty-eight times in total if that time with the sake and the hot springs counts. Really, he has Naruto’s best interest at heart. Any accusation that someone may make that Yamato is being slightly sadistic over not getting enough sleep is pure slander and he is _hurt_. _Hurt_ , I tell you.

“I still don’t understand what the big deal is with hand seals. Everything I try works out fine, -ttebayo!” Yamato pulls his ghoul face on again, and Naruto screams.

“Just practice.”

“Why won’t anyone tell me what the big deal is!?” Naruto screeches after him, shaking a fist.

/////////////////////

“Okay, so you, like, invented a whole bunch of jutsu, right?” asks a blond with whiskers and the most fascinating form of senjutsu Tobirama has ever seen. He blocks a Zetsu with his sword and cuts the abomination made of his brother’s blood in two.

“Yes.” Three more of the creatures fall to the teenager beside him, and another five to Tobirama’s suiryuudan.

“That’s really cool, I thought that jutsu took a whole bunch of hand signs -ttebayo!” the blond enthuses, throwing what Tobirama could only guess was a fuuma shuriken made entirely of shaped wind chakra and senjutsu. It removes a good fifty Zetsu permanently before dissipating. Idly, he wonders if this boy is from Konoha, and if he is not if Tobirama can convince him to defect to his old Village.

“It does.”

“Well, how do you do it with less? Everyone keeps telling me that it’s just practice, but there’s gotta be more to it than that.” Madara sends asteroids screaming through the sky again, but it appears most of the ninja are wise enough to mark their trajectory and avoid the flaming missiles.

“Your chakra learns the shape of the jutsu. With enough practice or chakra control, you don’t need hand signs.” The boy is an Uzumaki, despite lacking the brilliant red hair of the clan, and looks and feels just enough like his successor the Yondaime for Tobirama to guess this is Naruto. He sees a few other Narutos around and further surmises that he is talking to a clone.

“Oh, that makes sense! So if you learn how every hand seal feels, you could just string it together without the hand seals, right?” Naruto cheers as an Akimichi rolls past, decimating the enemy forces. Fortunately his bunshin jutsu allows for memory transference. This boy could be a good student, with questions like that, too bad there is so little time.

“Impractical. But possible.” If he were still alive, that would make a good experiment. Hopefully, he still remembers that in the next life.

“Aww, man. But y’know how there’s always a tora in katon jutsu, or a tori in fuuton?” he asks, before muttering, “well, mostly.” Tobirama inclines his head even as Naruto uses shaped chakra to plough through three Zetsu. “Why?”

“The seals are related to the animals of the zodiac. Each one governs a certain aspect of chakra. As you get older, many of the seals you use the most will automatically fill in even if you neglect to do them physically. It is similar to your earlier suggestion. Tori is precision. Tora power.” Chakra and wood explodes from where Madara is, clearly Hashirama beat them there. “And so on. The rest is focus and chakra control. Excuse me.” Tobirama is almost not looking forward to fighting Madara, not when he has to leave behind such a promising young mind ready to be molded. Fire lights the wood. Almost being the operative word.

“Thanks, Tobirama-sensei! You’re awesome!” Naruto yells, as Tobirama’s Hiraishin pulls him away.

**Author's Note:**

> All of the jutsu I used in this fic are real, pulled straight from Narutopedia. As is the names of the seals, the rest is extrapolation. I do hope everyone enjoys this, it was a lot of fun to write.


End file.
